This chapter is dedicated to all the readers out there who have been so very patiently waiting for an update to this fic, and yet did NOT send me irate emails demanding that I update five minutes ago lest they make me suffer.

 

This chapter is also and most especially dedicated to my pal Siggy (aka my manager), who cheered me up last night so that I could actually concentrate on getting said chapter finished, as opposed to wasting all my creative energy plotting ways in which to painfully maim the one reader who DID send me an irate email demanding that I update five minutes ago lest she make me suffer. 

 

This chapter is NOT dedicated to that reader, who—after I emailed her back and very politely told her that she had all the maturity of a spoiled three year old—then took it upon herself to send me even MORE irate emails, which were filled with…words…so as to be not repeatable in polite society.

 

For a three year old, her grasp on certain phrases of the English language is most admirable.  Inuyasha would  be impressed.  If he was…you know…English.

 

Desiree:  But we’re not at all bitter, now are we?

 

Quickening:  *Smiling through her teeth*  Of course not.  Because we’re better than that.  We will NOT stoop to her level.  We will NOT give her the satisfaction of pissing us off…

 

Desiree:  No, of course not.  You’ll just sit there and attempt to twist the head off your stuffed Unicorn, instead.

 

Quickening: >_<   I’ll bet the PUBLISHED  authors never have to go through this kind of shit…

 

Desiree:  Of course they do.  They just get paid an obscene amount of money to go through it.

 

Quickening:  Keh.  Maybe I’ll start charging…

 

Chapter Seven

 

She had to tell Inuyasha the truth.

 

Kagome decided this after having spent several hours tossing and turning and worrying and thinking and basically doing everything but actually sleeping.  Nobody else seemed to be having such trouble doing so, she noticed peevishly, but she felt so horribly guilty for lying to Inuyasha that sleep refused to come.  Curse her over-developed ethics, anyway!  She hadn’t even really lied to him, per say.  But withholding information was still close enough to it that her conscience would not let her rest until she told him the entire truth.  Even if he ended up hating her…a thought that she really did not want to ponder on at the moment…at least he would know. 

 

After a few more halfhearted efforts to get comfortable, Kagome heaved a sigh and sat up, carefully shifting a heavily sleeping kitsune to the side so she could rise from her pallet and go off in search of the hanyou unnoticed.

 

Well, almost.

 

“Kagome?”  Miroku’s questioning whisper made her freeze in her tracks, her eyes resembling those of a startled rabbit.  “Where are you going?” he continued in a soft murmur, sitting up to regard her cautiously.

 

She gulped.  “Um…walk,” she mumbled, refusing to meet his gaze.  “Need to take a walk.  Can’t sleep.  Too stuffy.”

 

“I shall accompany you,” he replied, moving to rise to his feet.

 

“No!”  Kagome winced.  That had come out a lot louder and more panicked than she’d intended.  “No, don’t worry about it,” she continued in a calmer tone.  “I want to be by myself.”

 

“Kagome…”  Miroku’s tone was solemn, and despite her protests, he moved to stand beside her at the doorway.  “Are you afraid to face me alone now?” he questioned softly, meeting her gaze in the dim light seeping in through the thin, woven mat that served as a door.

 

She blinked, startled at the question.  “N-no, I just…”  She broke off uncertainly.  The truth was, she was afraid to be alone with him…but it wasn’t because she feared him, so much as herself, and the way her body now seemed to respond to his mere presence.  Every inch of her was prickling, as though she was standing too close to an electric fence.  It felt as though his very aura was reaching out to her, embracing her, wrapping her in sensual, comforting warmth.  The memories of his touch were dancing in her head again; no matter what, she couldn’t get rid of them, and with each one, she could feel a slow, familiar heat spread through her blood, making her feel flushed all over. 

 

“Kagome, you seem…disturbed.  Are you all right?”  Miroku’s concern was obvious as he raised his ungloved hand to her face, cupping her chin to tilt her head this way and that, as though examining her.  “Your face is warm.  Are you ill?”

 

“I’m fine,” she muttered, wanting to escape then and there, but knowing that Miroku would most likely chase her down anyway until he was satisfied that she was unhurt.  “And no, I’m not afraid of you,” she added defiantly, in answer to his earlier question.

 

His voice was amused as he replied, “I didn’t ask if you were afraid of me.  I asked if you were afraid to be alone with me.  There is a world of difference you know.”

 

“Oh,” she replied sheepishly, pouting a little in embarrassment.  But she didn’t answer the question.

 

Miroku was silent for a moment.  “Kagome…when you went home…did you find out what you needed to?” he asked softly, seriously.

 

Kagome hesitated, shifting uncomfortably, then released a sigh.  “I…couldn’t bring myself to talk to my mother about it,” she replied, keeping her voice to a whisper just in case the other two occupants of the hut happened to wake up.

 

“You mean…you know nothing?”  Miroku didn’t seem too thrilled about that.  “Kagome, did you speak to anyone about…?”

 

“Who was I supposed to talk to?” she hissed, glaring up at him.  She looked around, then grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the hut for more privacy.  “I can’t tell my mother what happened.  I just can’t.  The way she would look at me…I couldn’t bear to see the disappointment in her eyes.  She taught me to be responsible, damn it!  And if…if she was angry enough she might forbid me to come back anymore and then what will happen to the quest?”

 

Miroku was silent in the face of this observation.  She swallowed against building tears and took a deep breath.  “Look…I think…I think I’ll be okay.  I’m due to get my period…my monthly blood…by next week.”  She felt rather embarrassed at talking about something so personal with the monk, but if it fazed him at all, his expression didn’t show it, and so she pressed on.  “If it comes when it’s supposed to then the chances are very good that I’m not…pregnant.”

 

“And if you are?” he asked softly.  “What will you do then, Kagome?  Will you continue to lie to your mother, to everyone, until you’re too swollen with child to hide anymore?”

 

“I’m not…lying,” she muttered uncomfortably.  “I’m just…withholding certain information until an appropriate time comes to disclose such information.”  And there went her damned conscience again.  “If my period comes then there’s no need to worry anyone about anything, right?” 

 

“Unless it doesn’t come.”

 

She squirmed some more.  “If that happens then I-I’ll talk to her, and tell her everything.”  She smiled bitterly.  “I can’t imagine what I’ll say to her, though.”  She pursed her lips in thought.  “Let’s see now…‘Hey, Mom, I had a one-night stand with a womanizing monk who can’t keep his hands—or anything else—to himself, and it was the best night of my life and, oh, by the way, you’re gonna be a grandmother.  Surprise?’  Yeah.  That’d go over real well, I’m sure…”

 

Miroku didn’t seem to be listening.  He was regarding her with a strange little half-smile playing about his lips.  “It was the best night of your life?” he asked softly.

 

“Huh?”  Kagome blinked up at him, then backtracked in her thoughts a little and…  “Urk!” she squeaked, looking panicked.  “Uh…eh…I meant…it was th-the most degrading experience of my life and…and…it never should have happened ‘cause we barely even know each other and…it was just the heat of the moment and…and you don’t even love me so it can’t ever happen again.  Never.  ‘Cause only somebody who loves me can have his dirty way with me and…and…it isn’t you!  Got that?”

 

Miroku merely smiled, his eyes dark and lidded, as he trailed the back of his hand softly down the side of Kagome’s face.  “It need not be just a one-night stand, you know,” he murmured.  “It could be so much more than a single night, if you’d let me show you…”

 

“I-I gotta go,” she muttered, jerking her chin from his hand and hoping to high heaven that the darkness would hide the hot flush she could feel burning in her face.  “I have to go look for…”  She broke off and shook her head.  “I gotta go.”  Preferably, before she caved under that darkly sensual look he was giving her and threw herself into his arms again and let him show her all over again what being loved by him was like.

 

Before Miroku could stop her, she had turned and slipped away into the darkness, glad for the icy air that bathed her hot cheeks.  She walked aimlessly for a bit, until she was certain that the nosy monk wasn’t following her, then changed direction and headed for the Goshinboku, knowing that Inuyasha preferred its sheltering branches to those of any other tree in the forest.  Perhaps being pinned for fifty years to its huge trunk had given him some kind of affinity for the ancient tree, but she thought that he seemed to take some kind of comfort in its silent presence.

 

She reached the Goshinboku in no time, softly calling the hanyou’s name.  To her surprise, there was no answer.  Then again, Inuyasha seemed to delight at times in simply ignoring her, especially when he was sulking.  Still, he hadn’t been mad when he’d run out, and the branches where he normally slept seemed to be bereft of his presence.  She could see no sign of gleaming, golden eyes peering down at her through the shadowed leaves.  How weird.  I wonder where he’s gone off to, she thought.

 

As if in answer to her thoughts, a sudden chill crept up her spine, causing her to stiffen and take in a sharp breath.  It was a familiar coldness that had nothing to do with the frigid winter air, though it was one that she’d felt only a few times before.  But those few times had been a few too many, and never did their arrival herald good news.  Turning her eyes slowly skyward, fervently praying that she wouldn’t see what she knew was there, her heart began to sink in her chest as her eyes indeed began to pick out the gleaming-pale, sinewy shapes of Shinidama-chuu gleaming softly against the velvet blackness of the sky.

 

There were only a few of them, and they were empty-armed, but it did not reassure Kagome in the least.  If Kikyou’s pets were not hunting for souls, it meant that the undead miko had dropped by for another reason, and that reason could only be Inuyasha.  Eyes narrowed and lips drew together in a thin, determined line as Kagome began to follow the gracefully drifting shapes deeper into the forest, unwavering in her resolve to save Inuyasha from whatever scheme Kikyou was plotting this time around, no matter what it might cost her.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quickening:  Cliffie?  What cliffie?  Does anybody see a cliffie aroun-yiiiieeeeee!

 

Deedlit:  Looks like she found the cliffie. 

 

Desiree:  Actually, it looks more like a plot hole from here…

 

Deedlit:  Watch that first step there.

 

Quickening:  *lying spread-eagle in the crater*  Thanks for the warning...